This image from video provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via DVIDS shows manufacturing plant employees waiting to have their legs shackled at the Hyundai Motor Group’s electric vehicle plant, on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025, in Ellabell, Ga.
Corey Bullard | U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP
Hundreds of people who were among those detained by U.S. immigration authorities while working on building an electric vehicle battery plant for Hyundai and LG Energy Solution in Georgia are expected to fly home to South Korea on a chartered plane out of Atlanta as early as Wednesday.
A Korean Air Boeing 747-8I that departed from Seoul landed in Atlanta on Wednesday to collect those workers.
U.S. officials have not said if or when any of the workers will be released from detention and allowed to return to South Korea.
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio Wednesday morning in Washington, D.C. Cho arrived in the United States earlier this week, intent on helping his fellow citizens return to Korea.
A spokesperson for South Korea’s Foreign Ministry told reporters Tuesday that the plan was to fly about 300 LG employees home on Wednesday, and that a detailed plan would be announced when preparations were finished.
As of Wednesday at midday, however, there had not yet been any announcements about flight plans.
Nonetheless, the landing of a charter plane at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport appeared to signal that the return process was underway.
“Our nationals who had been detained by U.S. immigration authorities will soon be returning home,” South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said Tuesday during a cabinet meeting.
Lee held a friendly meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House on Aug. 25. But he has since blasted the controversial detention of hundreds of Korean engineers and energy specialists in the massive raid on Sept. 4.
“I hope that there will never again be an unjust infringement upon the activities of our people and companies in pursuit of the shared development of South Korea and the United States,” said Lee.
“Our government will move quickly, through close consultations with the United States, to advance reasonable institutional improvements so that similar cases do not occur again,” Lee said.
American officials said last Friday that 475 people were detained after a raid Thursday at the huge site near Savannah. More than the 300 South Korean nationals were among those rounded up for allegedly lacking necessary documentation to work in the United States.
The vast majority of the detained people reportedly worked as subcontractors.
The raid came on the heels of South Korea pledging to invest a whopping $500 billion in strategic U.S. industries. That pledge included a $26 billion commitment by Hyundai.
— NBC News’ Stella Kim contributed reporting
